ALEUTINE. – Archipelago of approximately 150 islands (of which 12 are major) and reefs, all mountainous and volcanic (with dormant and active volcanic systems), divided into 5 groups (Fox Islands, Islands of the Four Mountains, Andreanof, Rat, Near), west of Alaska, upon which they administratively depend. The A. cover a total of approximately 37–38,000 sq. km and have about 1,200 inhabitants (formerly, it seems, more than 25,000), almost all indigenous, and akin to the neighboring Eskimos in language and culture. At the time of their first contacts, the Russians called them Aleuts; their own name is Unangan.
Important for fishing (cod, herring, salmon) and hunting (seals, whales, sea lions), and with modern fox farms (Fox Islands), the A. occupy a position of the highest strategic importance; the North Americans have built two large naval bases there, at Dutch Harbor near I. Unalaska (Fox) and on the island of Kiska (Rat).
The most important inhabited center is Unalaska (230 inhabitants), on the island of the same name. Small settlements are found in the eastern group of the Fox Islands (Unimak, Unalaska, Akutan, and Umnak); throughout the rest of the archipelago, the inhabited islands are Atka (Andreanof) and Attu (Near).
The A., as a Mission territory, belong Alaska (v.).